Moto cold shoulders upgrade-hungry Xoom users
No help for Brits stuck with Android 3.0 as Yanks get 3.2
Motorola offered no consolation today for the many UK-based owners of its Xoom Wi-Fi-only tablet who feel let down because OS updates made available in the US have not come to this country.
And not just Brits. Updates released in the States have yet to reach a fair few other countries too.
A company spokeswoman was only able to say that an announcement may be made in due course. When? We'll tell you when we tell you, she told Reg Hardware today.
Yes, Motorola is aware of the rumblings among annoyed customers. No, it has nothing to say to them,
Ironically, many Xoom users - a large number of who have been posting irate commments on the manufacturer's message boards - would prefer to be told that they will not be getting updates than to continue facing the wall of silence mounted by Motorola.
"Motorola should set expectations now and tell us the 3.2 update is once again going to be for US customers only," said one poster.
Another pleaded: "I know that we still don't have 3.1 in UK but please give us some clarity if we are going to see 3.2 update ever, and if so, when it will happen."
US-based Xoom owners are now receiving Android 3.2 Honeycomb, it seems. They have already been granted the 3.1 update.
The Xoom shipped with Android 3.0, the version UK owners and folk in many other countries are still stuck with.
Some European countries have received 3.1 [update: actually, they haven't] the update incorporating a Micro SD card slot bugfix that has, oddly, still to be sorted for US Xooms.
Presumably the 3.2 update will deal with it, though that's of little consolation to the folk still awaiting 3.1.
Hopefully, Motorola will take them straight from 3.0 to 3.2. ®
COMMENTS
How so?
Apple's support period is industry leading. 2-3 years of updates with more than just bug fixes.
In this case Motorola can't even update users of its current product, never mind owners of older stuff.
Motofail
Motorola did the same thing with a bunch of their Android phones too - most notably the original Milestone (US - Droid) They updated the US one to Froyo(?) fairly quickly and then ignored the UK/Europe customers.
They keep pulling the same stunt over and over again, expecting you to replace your device with their latest & greatest rather than giving you software upgrades for your existing devices - even though the devices are more than capable of running said upgrades. (As evidenced by the US consumers getting the upgrades on mostly identical hardware.)
Once bitten, twice shy. I will never buy another Motorola product.
Warning: Troll.
I thought being update starved *was* the Google experience.
Not true
"you had no way of knowing it wouldn't be a Google Experience Device, and that you'd be update starved. -1 for Motorola."
That's not true. You could simply have looked at Motorola's previous behaviour with every single Android device they have released. If you buy a Motorola Android device expecting a software update you WILL be disappointed.
Bait and switch
If you pre-ordered in the UK, you had no way of knowing it wouldn't be a Google Experience Device, and that you'd be update starved. -1 for Motorola.
